Farmers in Likuyani Sub County have been encouraged to embrace passion fruit farming in order to economically empower themselves.
Mr. Magellan Otanga, an officer with Safaricom Company Limited, made the remark at Sango ward where he handed over 300,000 seedlings of passion fruits to small-scale farmers in the area.
Otanga observed that most farmers in the area were unable to make ends meet due to what he termed as overreliance on traditional practices of farming.
“Time has come for farmers in this region to stop overreliance on maize production as their economic mainstay and instead adopt new and well rewarding agricultural practices such as horticultural farming,” observed Otanga.
The officer said besides the nutritional value attached to passions, the fruits had the capacity to generate quick incomes and thereby boost the economic growth of the area and Kakamega County in general.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, Otanga promised to help boost farming of the crop through awareness creation among the locals on growth, market accessibility, and its economic value.
“We will do this through regular field visits and exhibitions to farmers in the county,” disclosed Megallan, adding he will work closely with the department of agriculture.
Mr. Otanga said he was looking forward to having a passion fruits processing plant in the region to provide a ready market for the produce.
He appealed to farmers to increase acreage of land on horticultural farming, “So that they can intercrop fruits and various types of vegetables both for subsistence and commercial purposes,” he added.
The Safaricom official revealed his objective, saying his ambition was to transform youths’ attitude toward agriculture and livestock production.
“The idea is to see our youth take farming as a full-time source of employment and end the culture of rushing and wasting time and energy in towns like Nairobi and Mombasa,” he said.
Otanga said he will in future unveil a poultry farming project in the Sub County.
